• by Wayne Friedman , October 8, 2010

ABC clawed its way back on Thursday night to early-season leader CBS -- but not all the way back.

In the third big Thursday of the new season, ABC sits just two-tenths of a rating point behind CBS with a Nielsen preliminary 2.9 rating/8 share to CBS' 3.1/10. Last week, ABC was at a 2.8 rating to CBS' 3.3 rating.

CBS slipped a bit from key shows: "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" dropped to a 2.7/7 from a 3.0 the week before. Its 8 p.m. hour also sank to a 3.4/10 from a 3.8 rating: "Big Bang Theory" dipped to a 4.0/13 from a 4.4 rating the previous week, while "$#*! My Dad Says" went to a 2.8/9 from a 3.3.

Things pretty much remained the same at 10 p.m. -- a virtual deadlock between CBS' "The Mentalist" (3.0/9) and ABC's "Private Practice" (2.9/8), identical to last week's numbers.

Much of ABC's problems this year have been with its 8 p.m. hour "My Generation," the now canceled drama, which last week had a crushingly uncompetitive 1.1/3. But a repeat "Grey's Anatomy" this week couldn't do much better, offering the same 1.1/3. ABC had been the previous years' leader on Thursday night.

The also-rans: NBC's "The Office" moved down a bit, to a 3.4/9 from a 3.7 rating; "30 Rock" was half a rating point lower at a 2.1/6; "Community" went south by two-tenths of a rating point to a 1.7/6. "The Apprentice" lost up one-tenth to a 1.3/4. NBC ended the night at a 2.1/6, down from a 2.3 rating a week ago.

Fox's steady "Bones" moved up a bit to a 2.6/8; "Fringe" stayed the same at a 2.0/5. All this inched up Fox to a 2.3/7.

Univision had an identical 1.7/5 number to a week ago; CW grew a bit to a 1.4/4 among 18-49 viewers. In its key 18-34 viewers, CW's "Vampire Diaries" had another decent 1.9/6; but "Nikita" still struggles at a 1.1/3.